Yang takes the stand, points finger at wife: ‘It was her, not me’

by Wan Ting Koh

IT ENDED in just half an hour. The much anticipated testimony of The Real Singapore (TRS) co-founder Yang Kaiheng began today (April 6) in the afternoon but ended abruptly after his lawyer requested to postpone proceedings due to the medical condition of Yang’s wife, Ai Takagi, who was absent from court.

Takagi, who is 23 years old and more than two months pregnant, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail last month for publishing seditious articles on TRS, a socio-political website.

No word on how the Australian-Japanese is feeling – though, yesterday it had emerged that she had been bleeding and had gone to the Singapore General Hospital to see a gynaecologist.

The family drama only added to the suspense over Yang’s testimony, which went pretty much as expected, given his defence strategy since the 27-year-old claimed trial for the seven counts of sedition against him: Distance himself from the website and pin the blame on the wife.

On the stand, the Singaporean appeared calm and composed. In a green chequered shirt, he reiterated what his defence lawyer, Choo Zheng Xi, had suggested before: It was Takagi who “took on the running of the entire website”. She was the one who sourced the website’s content. She liaised with Google staff to use its advertising services. It was she who engaged a team of editors for TRS.

Not him.

When asked by his lawyer if he was involved in any writing or editing roles for the website, Yang said: “None.” “She is the one who got the team together,” he said firmly.

So what was he doing, then?

Then a third year student at the University of Queensland, Australia, when he founded the TRS website with his wife sometime between June and July 2012, Yang said he was only “actively involved for one or two months” because he was busy with schoolwork and a gaming club which he founded.

He said he was involved only with the design of the site, like the placements of the headings and logo. He also did some research with regards to the website’s advertising and was the one who suggested Google AdSense to Takagi as a “suitable platform to generate revenue”.

After that, however, Yang said his role was limited to giving Takagi “ad hoc assistance in mobile apps”, like giving her “suggestions and feedback in the design [and] how it should look like”.

The prosecution, in closing its case this afternoon, restated its case against Yang, that it believed Yang was involved in the running of the site.

Referring to the evidence of chat logs it had presented earlier which suggested Yang had a “sustained involvement” in running the site from 2012 to 2014, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) G Kannan said Yang’s involvement went beyond what he has claimed.

Yang’s role as a 50 per cent shareholder of the private company Ryuken, which received advertising revenue earned from the TRS website, further “attaches liability to Yang as an owner,” DPP Kannan added.

The trial continues tomorrow morning with Yang returning to the stand.

 

Featured image taken by Wan Ting Koh and edited by Sean Chong. 

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The post Yang takes the stand, points finger at wife: ‘It was her, not me’ appeared first on The Middle Ground.

- Wan Ting Koh